# Can you "over-season" a humidor?



## LegalEagle (Sep 7, 2008)

I will be going out of town for about a month, and I was thinking about re-seasoning my humidor. It has been fluctuating a bit more than I like lately (and I'm using beads), so I thought it might help to give it a month-long seasoning.

I'm thinking about moving all my cigars to my cooler and then lightly wiping the inside of the humidor with distilled water, putting a small bowl of warm distilled water in there, and leaving it untouched for a month.

What say you? Good idea? Bad idea? Won't really do anything one way or the other?


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## BigCat (Sep 9, 2008)

My initial thought is that you might run into mold issues by leaving water in it that long without some sort of mechanism that regulates humidity. Maybe you could throw a couple boveda packs in there instead of the water, which I think are two-way humidity systems. I'm no expert on this topic though, so I'll be interested to see the other responses.


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## piperman (Sep 8, 2005)

I dont think you can over season it, Im sure it wont hurt it but maybe someone else has done it before.


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## LegalEagle (Sep 7, 2008)

Hmm -- hadn't thought about the mold issue. What about, instead of the bowl, completely saturating my HF beads and leaving those in there?


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## BigCat (Sep 9, 2008)

LegalEagle said:


> Hmm -- hadn't thought about the mold issue. What about, instead of the bowl, completely saturating my HF beads and leaving those in there?


I guess it would depend on how dry the humidor is. If it is pretty dry, that might work because the beads would give off a lot of the humidity and then have capacity to absorb it if it got too high. But if it is close to where you want it to be RH-wise, but just unstable, saturated beads would have no way of absorbing more humidity, and you'd have the potential mold issue again.


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## jm0307 (May 21, 2008)

LegalEagle said:


> I'm thinking about moving all my cigars to my cooler and then lightly wiping the inside of the humidor with distilled water, putting a small bowl of warm distilled water in there, and leaving it untouched for a month.
> 
> What say you? Good idea? Bad idea? Won't really do anything one way or the other?


I would use a 50/50 distilled water and propylene glycol solution. This would provide a relative constant rate of evaporation, and if you buy a ready made solution, then you have the added advantage of antifungal agents in the solution.

PS: However, don't wipe down the humi with such a solution.


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## piperman (Sep 8, 2005)

Austin is a pretty humid city if I can remember, are you sure your humi seals good. If your using beads you should be stable.


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## audio1der (Mar 8, 2006)

BAD IDEA!
That warm water will put way too much humidity into the air.
Just leave it sealed for the month. It will level itself out.
If you're concerned that there won;t be enough water vapor inside the humi, put a shot glass of DW in the opposite corner of the beads.


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## ElkTwin (Aug 14, 2004)

The straight answer to your question is yes; it is possible to over-season a humidor. Any time water touches the cedar you are over-seasoning. Besides risking discoloration (even when using distilled water) and/or raising the grain of the wood, any time you apply water directly to the wood you are tempting fate as the rapidly swelling wood is much more apt to warp causing damage to the integrity of the box or hardware.

Lots of folks seem to have forgotten this.


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## Lacorag (Nov 20, 2008)

ElkTwin said:


> The straight answer to your question is yes; it is possible to over-season a humidor. Any time water touches the cedar you are over-seasoning. Besides risking discoloration (even when using distilled water) and/or raising the grain of the wood, any time you apply water directly to the wood you are tempting fate as the rapidly swelling wood is much more apt to warp causing damage to the integrity of the box or hardware.
> 
> Lots of folks seem to have forgotten this.


So are you saying to only season the humi once? Then how often should you wet the humi disc ? My humi dial never changes as it is always around 67 or 68. How do I know if it's working correctly ?


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## Snake Hips (May 30, 2008)

Lacorag said:


> So are you saying to only season the humi once? Then how often should you wet the humi disc ? My humi dial never changes as it is always around 67 or 68. How do I know if it's working correctly ?


Yes, only season a humidor once unless you've allowed it to dry out. Wet the humidification element whenever your hygrometer suggests it needs water. You can check your hygrometer's accuracy by salt testing it or buying a Boveda hygrometer calibration pack.


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## taltos (Feb 28, 2006)

Lacorag said:


> So are you saying to only season the humi once? Then how often should you wet the humi disc ? My humi dial never changes as it is always around 67 or 68. How do I know if it's working correctly ?


If you are using an analog hygrometer, you can assume that it is not working properly. These are notorious for being inaccurate/inconsistant. Invest in a decent digital hygrometer and test its accuracy first with either the salt test or a boveda pack. It is better to season the humidor by allowing the wood liner to absorb water vapor in its atmosphere rather than wiping down the wood although a light wipe has never hurt one of my humidors.


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## orca99usa (May 23, 2008)

> My initial thought is that you might run into mold issues by leaving water in it that long without some sort of mechanism that regulates humidity.


I can tell you from personal experience that this will happen - and I live in the desert. I managed to grow mold in my humidor (see details below).


> If you are using an analog hygrometer, you can assume that it is not working properly. These are notorious for being inaccurate/inconsistent.


Before I knew any better, I turned myself inside out trying to get my analog hygrometer to read the coveted 65-70% RH. I seasoned the humidor three times over the course of two months. Even with a large bowl of distilled water inside and mold growing on the sides, my analog hygrometer read only 55% RH. After talking to a more knowledgeable friend. I took the water bowl out and bought a digital hygrometer. It showed that my RH had been running 67-70% all along without the water bowl - during which time my analog was reading around 30%. My analog was reading about 40% low, meaning that when it was reading 55% my actual humidity was probably 95%, the reason I was growing mold inside the humidor.

Now, with a crystal pack and adding a jigger of distilled water every 6-8 weeks I run at a consistent 64-67% RH, just about perfect.


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## MaduroManiac (Jul 8, 2004)

Mold will ultimately be waiting for you upon your return. Best wait till you return.


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## Rubix^3 (Nov 10, 2008)

I probably don't even need to post after everyone else's responses, but I don't understand the inclination to "super" season. Just get the humidor up to a stable 65 or 70. I purchased heartfelt beads after reading posts here this summer, got my humi to 70. No more probs.


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

If you saturate it with too much water, yeah. I use a sponge w/distilled water and just go over all of it until it has that wet look and then put a small amount of warm distilled water enclosed for 24 hours and then take the water out the next day and then let it sit for another two days and put my cigars back in with the beads and all is well.


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